A report by the Population Institute, an American-based independent research group, says the rate of population growth around the world is declining, but poor countries are still experiencing a population boom they are unable to support.

The institute says the world's population will reach six billion by the middle of 1999. From Washington, Marcus Herbert reports.

In its annual survey the Population Institute says rapid population growth in the world's poorest countries remains the most pressing global demographic problem, despite a decline in the overall global rate of increase. It compares the slower rise to a tidal wave.

Whether the tidal wave is 20 or 30 metres high, it says, the impact will be the same.

According to the institute, 74 countries from the developing world are on course to double their population in 30 years or less.

Nigeria and Pakistan are the two countries facing the steepest increases.

It says the consequences of such rapid growth include economic stagnation, malnutrition and urban decay, consequences that fall on countries that are least able to deal with them.

In the 51 richest countries populations are stabilising.

The institute's president, Werner Fornos, told a news conference in Washington this was mainly because of better education for women in those countries.

Mr Fornos said a woman with eight years of education had half as many pregnancies as one with no education at all.

He went on to criticise parts of the media in the United States for seeking to downplay the population problem, and the American government for cutting back its population assistance programme over the last four years.
 

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